Been following this website for a little while but haven't posted in the forums yet.

I have a question regarding working Internationally.

My situation was that I was working for an international cruise line as an engineer. Come tax time, I reported all the information I could regarding my pay. Regardless, I was still contacted by Revenue Canada regarding my time with the company.

Just wanted to know if you folks know of a "proper" way to do this or if you have also had similar experiences and what you have done.

What were you contacted about in particular? If you don't mind sharing. I was contacted once because I was working under a professional designation, and they wanted their portion of the GST, but all my income was made outside Canada, so it was a non issue.

Don't know about GST, but if you have a residence in, or any connection to Canada, you're taxed in Canada. There are no exemptions. There was a tax exemption for working the oil patch, but employers like Seabase in St Johns took the tax break by paying lower wages.

Not sure if you have seen this on the main website, but it's a project of mine, that like many other, don't seem to go anywhere, but I still have collected a fair bit of info on Cdn taxes. http://www.dieselduck.info/taxes/index.htm

Another point to remember, a tax lawyer may be a wise investment, the CRA are not your friends, never will be, and they don't give a shit about you and how they wreck you and your family. So be careful what you say, having done nothing wrong is not good enough, and an accountant can't protect you, as a matter of fact they are obligated to report certain things to the CRA, whereas lawyers have better privileges.

I was working with an international cruise line (Princess Cruises).I do have my permanent residence in Canada. (BC if that matters)The income I was making was being directly transferred to my bank account. They (CRA) contacted me about how I made the "X" amount of dollars and they wanted all the information regarding who I was working for and how and where I was making that money.

I faxed them all my contract information (dates, lengths of deployment, etc.) for the tax year and also gave them contact information of my direct contacts from Princess Cruises as well as contact info to BCIT Marine Campus as I started working for Princess Cruises as an Engineering Cadet and then later continued work after graduation as an Engineering Officer. They seemed to be happy with all that information and haven't contacted me in a few weeks now.

I worked for several years on foreign flagged vessel. You have to declare your income and pay tax on it in Canada. Next year they will pro rate you to pay installments every quarter, to cover the estimated tax. If you pay in to little you will be dinged for the interest of the outstanding amount. So the best thing to do is to estimate your income and save every pay check and the pay it to Revenue Canada. You can pay it online and on their website set up an account to keep track of how much you paid in.

Excellent point Atlantic. Yes, that is always an unpleasant surprise no matter how many times you hope it doesn't come up. If you are paying taxes in Canada, but don't have them come off your paycheck, you will need to make hefty quarterly lump sum payments to the CRA, in the following year (s) at their estimate rate. These payments can really throw you for a loop if you are on a budget and unfamiliar with this type of income (self employed income), so best to be prepared, organized and informed.

Also, if you figure they are estimating your payments pretty high, or your work situation changes, you can stop making these payments or alter the amount (if memory serves me right), however if you are cutting off the CRA too early, or too much, they will levy a fine on you. Go figure. If you don't overpay taxes, before you or anybody else are obligated to submit your taxes, then we will punish you. It really is not fair. It kinda bends me out of shape this rule, you're expected to pay up front before any actual tax deadlines or amount has been determined on their say so.

Audicoupe, I would suggest that you only submit the information they specifically ask for, careful with how much information you give. It is your information, volunteering information can get you in more trouble, just like dealing with border or police. There are not your friends, and before you know it they have framed that information in a way that may not represent your situation. For instance, your employer is not Princess I am sure. It is probably a numbered company in Liberia, created specifically for the one ship you were working on, which is probably owned by another numbered company in the Marshal Islands, but then again you may be under contract to a ship management company, which cruise line really are, but they may not be in charge of crewing your department. My point is that is you are not absolutely sure, don't volunteer any information that could be misconstrued as lying.

It sounds like they were after the GST portion, like they did to me. They probably wanted to know where that income was coming from, and if from Canadian sources, why wasn't there any GST remittance.

When I worked at RCCL i had tried to find out who was actually paying me, but after much searching, I was really never satisfied with the answer, as these companies are set up with clear aim not to be held in any jurisdiction in any one set of laws and to limit financial damages to just one ship, instead of the whole brand and all the ships under it.

I only disclosed what information they asked of me. Seems like there are some other issues they are trying to screw me for completely unrelated to my work abroad. Since when did receiving money from an education fund set up by my parents mean being employed by them?!

In any case, I'm hoping it gets resolved. I'm no longer working for an international company so I'll be receiving a T4 and the other proper tax documents this time around.

I was hired by a UK crewing agency, the old "pool", and worked for V Ships, HQ in Monte Carlo, branch in Cyprus, sub-office in Dubai, in a ship owned by Saudis and flagged in Panama. My pay cheque came from Monrovia. Gotta love globalization!